Exercise and Self-Care

What does it mean to be self-caring? What can we do for ourselves that will
produce more energy, more satisfaction, and serve as an alternative to all the
addictive possibilities available to us? How does exercise fit into the picture?

Self-care requires that we take a daily preventative approach to the care of
our bodies. Exercise is an essential underpinning of a healthy lifestyle,
improving the capacity, strength, and flexibility of the body. An exercise
self-care plan includes the goals of fitness, strength, and flexibility.

Fitness -- Vigorous exercise (heart racing and body sweating) for 20
to 60 minutes a day, three to six days a week, increases cardiovascular
capacity, releases endorphins (which have a role in reducing stress and
depression), and burns excess calories, leading to weight reduction. Brisk
walking, jogging, cycling, aerobic dancing, swimming, stair climbing, and cross
country skiing qualify as vigorous and restorative exercises, if done properly. Be
sure to clear such an exercise program with your physician if you have not been
exercising or are 40 years of age or older.

Recent research shows that even a minimal level of exercise is better than
none. A regular routine totaling 20 to 30 minutes a day, six days a week will
improve fitness. Choosing a type of exercise you really want to do will help you
incorporate it into your lifestyle. Even then, it may take three months or more
of practice before it becomes routine. Activities such as walking at lunchtime,
dancing, gardening, tossing a ball, and climbing stairs can provide a sufficient
amount of exercise to maintain body tone and alertness. The 1996 Surgeon General’s
Report made the recommendations in the diagram below.

Examples of Moderate Physical Exercise

More vigorous, less time

Medium vigor & time

Less vigorous, more time

Stair walking, 15 minutes

Swimming laps, 20 minutes

Walking 1 3/4 miles, 35 min.

Shoveling snow, 15 minutes

Water Aerobics, 30 minutes

Wheel wheelchair, 30-40 min

Running 1 1/2 miles,

15 minutes

Walking 2 miles in

30 minutes

Gardening, 30-45 minutes

Jumping rope, 15 minutes

Raking leaves, 30 minutes

Touch football, 30-45 minutes

Bicycling 4 miles

in 15 minutes

Pushing stroller 1 1/2 miles 30 minutes

Volleyball,

45 minutes

Playing basketball,

15-20 minutes

Fast social dancing,

30 minutes

Washing windows or floors,

45-60 minutes

Wheelchair basketball,

20 minutes

Bicycling 5 miles in

30 minutes

Washing/waxing car,

45-60 minutes

Shooting baskets,

30 minutes

There is a limit to the amount of healthy exercise. When we exercise despite
significant pain or give it a priority beyond good health and normal social,
family, and work relationships, it may be serving another purpose. Some
indications of too much exercise include: recurrent overuse injuries; excessive
weight loss; resistance to reduce exercising when pain or injury occur; muscle
soreness and breakdown; depressed immune system; and degenerative and arthritic
changes.

Strength – Strength training maintains the mobility, flexibility
and power of the body’s muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints. It is
estimated that people who do not do strength training lose 35% of lean muscle
mass and 20% of strength by the time they reach the age of 65. This loss of
strength has a progressive impact, affecting the ability to do everyday things
such as walking up stairs, carrying groceries, getting up or down from chairs or
the floor, and maintaining balance. Strength training twice a week is
recommended, including exercises that use all the major muscle groups. One
indirect result of strength training is the ability to increase food intake
without gaining weight because of muscle development. Harriet Nelson’s Strong
Women Live Longer describes a scientifically based, user-friendly program of
weight training helpful to both men and women.

Flexibility is defined as being able to move one’s joints through a
maximum range of motion without pain. Our need for flexibility increases with
age, especially for persons over 50 years of age, because of disuse of muscles.
Disuse affects the ability to reach, carry, grasp, and balance. by building
flexibility, we improve daily functioning and avoid unnecessary injury, pain,
and surgery. Stretching exercises involving all muscle groups three times a week
are recommended. Leg stretches after aerobic activities maintain flexibility and
minimize pain and injury following exercise. As a general rule, stretches need
to be held from a gentle pull to the point prior to discomfort, for at least ten
and as much as thirty seconds, and for three to five repetitions. Stretching
needs to be done following a five-minute warm-up activity and after all fitness
and strength training to avoid injury.

Physical activity and health: A report of the Surgeon General. (1996).
Atlanta: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
Retrieved March 14, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/sgr/sgr.htm

--This article was adapted from Growing Ourselves Up: A Guide to Recovery
and Self-Esteem, with permission of the author, Stanley J. Gross, Ed.D.

Date published: 3/21/00 12:50:37 PM

Last updated:
30 Apr 2016
Last reviewed:
By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on
30 Apr 2016
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.